California’s legislative session has just wrapped up and the Governor’s recall election is now behind us. With the failure of the recall of Governor Newsom now behind us, there is less political turbulence in Sacramento.
Democrats still hold supermajorities in both houses of the Legislature, making it much easier to pass highly progressive majority vote bills in the labor, environmental, and consumer protection areas.
And that means you need to have a solid strategy for navigating California’s political landscape.
SB 1383 leaves (no pun intended) a huge loophole between state and federal family leave laws. Employees can get nearly six months of leave, at great cost to California businesses.
Read MoreThe Legislature claims it’s passing leave bills to help employees. But are they really helping, or actually hurting them? Some businesses are having to eliminate employee benefits in order to fund new leave mandates. Many employees say they’d rather have their original benefits than extra leave.
Read MoreBack in 2020, the California Legislature passed SB 1383—a historic bill that lowered the threshold of businesses who need to provide leave under the California Family Leave Act from those with 50+ employees to only five! This has a huge impact on small businesses.
Read MoreThe California Legislature continues to pile on employee leave mandates on small businesses. Even after the historic expansion of SB 1383, lawmakers are introducing employment leave bill after employment leave bill.
Read MoreThe government has a very difficult time issuing a driver's license or sending an unemployment check. Do we really want to entrust them with our healthcare? A single-payer healthcare system is unimaginable.
Read MoreThe California State Legislature has rejected efforts to pay down even the smallest amount of its unemployment insurance debt. California owes billions and businesses could soon be on the hook.
Read MoreDid you know CA borrowed over $21 billion from the fed government to backfill the unemployment insurance fund during the pandemic? If those funds are not repaid, every employer in the state will face automatic tax increases.
Read MoreAt the start of the pandemic, California’s unemployment insurance fund did its job, softening the blow of job losses suffered by millions of workers—but COVID completely wiped the fund out. In order to provide unemployment benefits after the UI fund was emptied, California borrowed over $21 billion from the federal government. Now, California is faced with a dilemma: pay back the debt or steeply raise taxes on employers.
Read MoreTom Sheehy, founder and principal of the Sheehy Strategy Group, discusses how you can expand your business in the public sector.
Read MorePublic funds are flush, and now is the perfect time for businesses of all sizes to establish a new relationship with state and local governments, or expand an existing one.
Read MoreIs telecommuting our new normal? This practice has been a lifesaver during COVID times, but if it’s here to stay, California needs to adopt some common-sense labor reforms.
Read MoreDid you know that California is the only state in the country with a Private Attorney Generals Act? Learn how this law is hurting the state's economic recovery.
Read MoreCalifornia continues to shoot itself in the foot when it comes to business regulations. CFRA expansion will put small firms out of business and ship more jobs out of state. Find out why.
Read MoreCalifornia can not afford to loose more flagship companies and high net worth individuals to others states. Resisting the urge to over-regulate and over-tax is extremely important to retaining top companies and the high paying jobs they offer.
Read MoreLast year California's governor and legislators codified a complete suspension of net operating loss (NOL) tax deductions for three years—a move meant to save the state general fund $4.5 billion at a great cost to businesses. But now the Legislative Analyst’s Office and the Department of Finance are projecting a $15 billion budget surplus, rendering the NOL freeze completely unnecessary.
Read MoreEmergency pandemic regulations may be necessary, but public input is vital. Cal-OSHA regulations outlining how to handle COVID-19 in the workplace are causing many problems for California businesses. Learn more about what Cal-OSHA is asking of business owners.
Read MoreLobbying in the COVID environment is a very different proposition than in pre-pandemic days. Does your your government affairs firm know how to get results during lock downs?
Read MoreCalifornia state government spends $11 billion annually in procurement of equipment, goods and services. Tom Sheehy explains how you can grow your business by selling into state agencies.
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